artist's statement by cathleen keenan

Agnes Smythe

https://www.pinterest.com/librarian0452/​I have chosen to use the popular social media site, Pinterest, to create an online collage that challenges the image of a librarian. In her article, “Loveless Frump as Hip and Sexy Party Girl: A Reevaluation of the Old Maid Stereotype”, Katherine C. Adams declares that “parody and mimicry are techniques of interpretation through which alternative meanings can be achieved” (293). By embodying the fictitious and stereotypical “Agnes Smyth”: the oppositional categories that compose the [stereotype of the librarian as a] shriveled prune are exposed, and this is the benefit of a semiotic analysis - its ability to expose the artifice in otherwise seemingly naturalized configurations of representation (296).

Agnes is your clichéd librarian who is not computer savvy. She “Pins” things in the incorrect “boards,” or “Pins” things multiple times. This is in direct opposition to the role of a librarian in today’s landscape, where there is a movement away from books to computers, from knowledge to data. (287-88). Using Pinterest as my source gave me the same narrow-vision and dimensions as the image of the Librarian: I was limited to what I could “Pin” and convey within my vision-board collection in a similar way to the myopic vision of librarians. Peppering my boards with the libSquares nods to both the ridiculousness and pervasiveness of the cat loving, ethnic jewelry and horn-rimmed glasses wearing, tweed and plaid hoarding librarian stereotype. Embodying the parody unveils how absurd it is.

Lastly, I found that the libSquares were sorely lacking any mention of computers! Using a social media site affirms the importance of computers and technology in the changing role of librarianship.

References

Adams, K. C. (2000). Loveless frump as hip and sexy party girl: A re-evaluation of the old-maid stereotype. The Library Quarterly, 70, 287-301